Abstract

The Old Order Amish sect is an Anabaptist religious group which can trace its origins back to the Protestant Reformation in Zurich. Forced to flee from persecution, some Anabaptists ultimately found a haven in the German Palatinate. Emigrating from the there to America during the eighteenth century, the Amish originally put down roots in Pennsylvania, an English colony founded by the Quaker William Penn. Many other German pioneers, who stemmed from a variety of denominations, joined the Amish in settling the south-eastern part of the colony, where most of them found employment in agriculture or in related fields. Traditionally bound to the land, the Amish in Lancaster County are currently confronted with the problem of urbanization and soaring prices for available acreage. Family size makes their situation even more acute, for they have an average of seven children. Finding adequate arable land for their off-spring to farm has become an almost insurmountable hurdle; therefore young people are being compelled to turn to occupations other than farming. The key question is whether they are successfully able to do so with their limited education. Formal education for the Amish now consists of eight years of basic learning in a one-room school maintained and run by ethnic school boards. Normally there are twenty to forty "scholars", as Amish schoolchildren are called, between the ages of six and fourteen in attendance. Teachers are generally young, single Amish women who themselves have completed only eight years of school. They serve as learning facilitators and motivators. The joy of achievement and the completion of assignments are accentuated. In the tightly-knit ethnic society emphasis is placed on learning not merely as an accrual of formal knowledge obtained at school but also as an accumulation of practical skills and social competence acquired in daily living: in the home, the church, the school, the work locale, and even in the world outside school the Amish social order. Until the late 1930’s the Amish had usually been content to send their children to the common public elementary school with its eight grades. Then a trend emerged to establish consolidated public school districts with central high schools, where attendance was mandatory. Subsequently the Amish began negotiating with authorities for permission to establish and maintain their own parochial schools, for they deem formal learning beyond the eighth-grade level to be unnecessary and incompatible with their way of life. During the mid-twentieth century many Amish parents were jailed or paid fines rather than send their children to high school, but in 1972 the United States Supreme Court determined that the parents, not the state, have the right to decide on the education of their children. Today those very few Amish who do continue their education are normally banned from their ethnic culture. The Amish lead ascetic lives that are governed by an unwritten code – the Ordnung. Amendments to this traditional set of rules are formulated as the need arises. Nonconforming church members face excommunication and social isolation (Meidung) within the ethnic community. The Amish have preserved their tradition of adult baptism, but over twenty percent of all Amish adults never become church members, i.e. are never baptized. Nevertheless, whether for earning a living within or beyond their cultural circle, the Amish work ethic and their practical learning ready them well for successful employment in trades compatible with their belief and their way of living.